Simple Math

In conversation with a bright young college student, the question of improving education came up.  She argued for better teacher pay to improve education.  She provided the example of Finland as being much better.  This was a simple conversation, but it seems perfectly in tune with the standard mantra we have heard for what seems like forever.  If the teachers were paid more, there would be more teachers and they would be of higher quality.   Granted it did not explore all the aspects of what it would take to improve America’s education system but it got me to wondering is there a direct correlation between teacher compensation and student performance?  Do teachers receiving higher pay actually produce better performing students?

This is a simple and gross comparison that does not account for how salaries compare regionally or within the state.  It also comes from a limited set of resources; none are a primary.  I have purposely omitted the District of Columbia, believing it a unique situation.  I also have not bothered to compare the average teacher salary to the state salary averages to consider whether they fall above or below the median.

State	Average Salary[1]	Performance[2]
Alabama	$ 40,347	33
Alaska	$53,553	31
Arizona	$44,572	35
Arkansas	$42,768	44
California	$59,825	29
Colorado	$44,439	4
Connecticut	$59,304	38
Delaware	$54,264	22
Florida	$43,302	12
Georgia	$48,300	26
Hawaii	$49,292	13
Idaho	$41,150	28
Illinois	$58,686	27
Indiana	$47,255	17
Iowa	$41,083	30
Kansas	$41,467	8
Kentucky	$42,592	36
Louisiana	$40,029	48
Maine	$40,737	14
Maryland	$54,333	20
Massachusetts	$56,369	1
Michigan	$54,739	45
Minnesota	$48,489	18
Mississippi	$40,576	47
Missouri	$40,462	46
Montana	$39,832	16
Nebraska	$40,382	41
Nevada	$44,426	15
New Hampshire	$45,263	9
New Jersey	$58,156	3
New Mexico	$41,637	34
New York	$57,354	10
North Carolina	$43,922	7
North Dakota	$37,764	32
Ohio	$50,314	21
Oklahoma	$38,772	42
Oregon	$50,044	39
Pennsylvania	$54,027	5
Rhode Island	$54,730	6
South Carolina	$43,011	49
South Dakota	$34,709	38
Tennessee	$42,537	43
Texas	$41,744	11
Utah	$40,007	40
Vermont	$46,622	2
Virginia	$43,823	25
Washington	$46,326	24
West Virginia	$38,284	50
Wisconsin	$46,390	19
Wyoming	$43,255	23

So, what do I determine from this simple table?  Of the 10 states with the top paid teachers, only half of them are actually in the top 10 from a performance standpoint, and three of the remaining five are actually in the bottom half of the performance list.  So I am hard pressed to understand how teacher salary has a direct link to how well the school system performs.

What this simple math doesn’t touch are the variables that are never addressed in the debates about how to improve education.  For example it doesn’t speak to what is the right ratio in per student expense between teacher compensation and other costs for things like music, art, and athletics.  It doesn’t attempt to determine how active parental involvement is critical to academic performance, or how expectation management plays into student performance.  Nor does it go into the impacts of a diverse student population (either for the better, or not).

My conclusion from this exercise is the union led arguments that better pay equals better education just doesn’t hold up even at the simple math level.   If pay were the principle incentive to become a teacher we would have no one teaching today.  If pay were made the #1 priority for improvement would we have better teachers tomorrow?  I believe with the diversity of issues that must go into creating a better educational system and the diversity of subject expert’s more than willing to tell everyone how to fix the problems it is unlikely we can make much headway if this continues as a national debate.
Postscript:  I came across this after I wrote the blog:  An interesting article, with the bottom line, get the best teachers, get the most out of the teachers, and deal with students who are lagging behind early. The Finland Model

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[1] http://www.teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state/

[2] http://www.alec.org/publications/report-card-on-american-education/